Product Description
Power and Press Freedom in Liberia, 1830-1970 tells the rich and sometimes heroic story of the press in Liberia, from 1830, when the first newspaper was established, to 1970, the nadir of government control of the media. Early newspapers were infused with a broad race consciousness, reflected in names like Africa’s Luminary, the African Watchman, and New Africa, which gave way to a specific nationalism at the turn of the last century, as the curtain of European colonization separated Liberians from the rest of the continent. Initially, newspapers featured biting social commentary and enjoyed wide latitude to criticize officials. But, increased foreign investments in the 1940s brought stringent restrictions and a rise in government ownership of the media. ... Read more

Product Description
The first work to apply Marxist class analysis and the theory of situational ethnicity to Liberian social formations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

First-class analysis
A lot of people today know Liberia for Taylor's wars and the business of blood diamonds, but know little about the background of the causes related to those conflicts. Hlophe's work (especially if read together with Osaghae's work on the Liberian "ethclass" question [1996:CODESRIA], and Levitt's work on all of Liberia's 18 major conflicts [2005:Carolina Academic Press]) will provide you with a good broad analysis of what was wrong in Liberian society, and why it is not surprising at all that the country ended up in the hands of a tyrant and then a warlord, respectively. Perhaps the most important contribution that Hlophe made through this work is a deep analysis of the "corporate family network" which formed the Liberian state's ruling class (True Whig Party). It is a specifically Liberian brand of neo-patrimonialism that at once appears to cut across ethnic lines but which ultimately consolidated ethnic hierarchy in the state's formal institutions. Hlophe's work is very important in understanding how (ethnic) power relations operate in Liberian business, governance, church, judiciary, schools, youth groups and so on - all relevant today as the recent wars have only strengthened the prestige of Americo-Liberianism in Liberian society, given their strong links to the diaspora and foreign money. This is a very important piece of work for those who may wish to become involved in post-conflict reconstruction in Liberia with their eyes opened, who need to understand the history of the ethnic character of power relations/elite formation and the institutions which they worked through. ... Read more